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10/03/2008 - MTA 'ads' subway cars
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has wrapped turnstiles in part of Grand Central Station with an ad for a Navy Web site.
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MTA CEO Elliot Sander said the MTA is mulling the "complicated issue" of having corporations "adopt" or sponsor subway stations for a price.
"It's something we are looking at potentially for the future," Sander said. "It's incumbent on the MTA to look at all possible avenues to increase revenues given the financial challenges we have."
In the past, transit officials have described station adoption as an arrangement that could involve granting a corporation certain exclusive rights, like controlling ads there.
The MTA faces a huge 2009 deficit and a legal mandate to have a balanced budget.
Sander said officials believe they can increase annual ad revenues by some $50 million by next year. The MTA took in $106 million in such revenues last year.
The MTA also unveiled the first-ever subway train with its exterior steel completely covered in ads for the History Channel's "Cities of the Underworld" show.
The vinyl coverings display street pavement and manholes for the show, which takes viewers into both modern-day and historic subterranean places like a power substation 150 feet below Grand Central Terminal and ancient sewer tunnels beneath Paris and Rome.
Smaller ads for "Cities of the Underworld" have been placed on some trains on the 1, 3, 4 and 7 lines.
Several riders yesterday said they welcomed the change of scenery.
Next year, the MTA will use the shuttle route to test placement of ads on the wall between stations that can be seen by riders in passing trains.
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